The First Thing in the Morning Buck 2015

Deer season, 2015.  In camp this year are myself, David, Don and new guys Bill with his son, Gabe, age 16.  I am very happy to have a new young hunter here.  Passing it on to new generations is very important to me.

It's also interesting that all these guys at camp this year are motorcycling buddies of mine.  David and Don are from my days of riding a Honda SilverWing and meeting guys via an internet forum of SilverWing riders.  Bill is a Fellow Founding Father of the Fossil Apostles Motorcycle Gang whose adventures can be read about at www.fossilapostles.com.

Don, aka "Blindstich"

David, aka, "Dave from Wisc"

Anyhow, as usual, I got up at 4:30 to make breakfast and then headed out to my favorite stand east of the Blueberry Swamp.  Dave and Don were over across the road near the gravel pit.  I sent Bill and Gabe down to near the railroad tracks on the southwest corner of Charlie's (my favorite bro-in-law) property.  We had the land pretty well surrounded. There were no doe tags again this year, everyone was buck hunting only.

It was a cool morning but not really cold, mid teens above zero as I recall.  Not much wind out of the northwest.  A slight covering of old snow to help in any needed tracking.  I got to the stand at about 6:30 with sunrise scheduled @ 7:30, legal shooting 30 minutes earlier at 7:00.  I climbed up and settled in for a long wait if needed.  Turned out, a long wait was not needed.

I was primarily watching to the west and north down the hill to the Blueberry Swamp.  That was the direction the wind was from plus that is the direction of my shooting lanes and where the deer are most often seen.  But I never restrict my hunting to one direction and am always slowly turning and scanning north, south and even way around me to the east. Of course east should not be the direction where deer would be because the prevailing breeze would send my human scent that way and warn any deer of my presence.   But I've been fooled by deer not following the rules and coming in from the wrong side many times before so I try and keep alert in all directions.

At about 7:30, right at sunrise, I was starting to turn my gaze around to the south when I saw some movement in my peripheral vision further left of me.  I looked directly in that direction and saw a deer moving from the south to the north about 60 yards east of me... and I saw antlers.... a buck!  I spun totally around on my swivel seat and got my gun up while I keep my eyes on him.  He was walking quickly but not running.  He was obviously in a hurry to get somewhere so I had to act quickly or miss out.

As mentioned, east from this stand is not my primary direction of hunting.  I have some minor shooting lanes cut but mostly that direction is overgrown with brush and trees.  I found a narrow spot between a couple of trees to train my cross hairs and suddenly I saw brown but then it was gone.  I remember thinking;  "I should have pulled the trigger right then!".  But I moved the scope over some more and had his body in my cross hairs.  I could tell there was some brush that might interfere but I figured it was now or never so I squeezed a shot off.

At the shot the buck started running and jumped a fence but then he stopped and stood there broadside looking at me.  Obviously my shot had totally missed and he was wondering what the heck all the noise was about.  I had already ejected the spent shell and my Ruger American bolt action in .308 was ready for the follow up shot.  I quickly found his body in the scope, moved the cross hairs to just behind his shoulder and pulled the trigger again.  This time the aim was true and the deer went right over.  I kept my scope on him a bit in case he got up again and needed more persuasion but it was very apparent he wasn't going anywhere.

I texted the other guys that my hunt was over for the weekend and climbed down from my tree.  Normally, if I can't see a deer I shot, I always wait 20 minutes before starting tracking to give it time to die but, as mentioned, I could see him and he was down for good.  I walked over to the buck, and as is my custom, I verbally thanked the Lord for His provision.  It was about an 80 yard walk and I soon realized he was a big bodied deer with a nice wide rack.

After getting closer I counted 8 points.  It was a very similar deer as last years buck "The Bruiser".   I think Bruiser was a shorter but huskier deer, kind of like a football player.  While "First Thing" was a longer deer more like a basketball player.  Comparing later I found that First Thing's antlers were wider but Bruiser's were taller and thicker.   Obviously very similar genetics and both were shot within a couple hundred yards of each other.







I drug the him to a clearing, drove back to the huntin' shack and asked my favorite (only) brother-in-law to help me pick him up with his tractor which he was willing to do:

Dave and Don graciously offered to butcher the deer for me this year which we did.  This was something new for me in that I have always just brought them into a local butcher.  But doing this meant I was able to share meat with the guys right away:

Thus ends another year at deer camp.  Every year is an adventure!

The Bruiser 2014

Opening day, gun season, November 22, 2014.  The week before opener, the weather had been very cold, below zero.  But the good news is that a "warm" front had come in and it was going to be up around 20 degrees.  Plus there had been some nice snow this month so there was a good 9" of snow on the ground.

 This year at camp we had four of us: David, Don (the new guy), Skip and myself.  There were no antlerless permits this year in Northern Wisconsin so we were hunting for bucks only.  This is very unusual for us in that most years we can literally shoot as many does as we see and are willing to buy tags for.  But because of two harsh winters and political pressure, all that opportunity was taken away from us this year.  We'd just have to wait for something with horns or go home sad.  I'm very glad to say that I did not go home sad.

I got up about 4:30, made breakfast for the crew, got dressed and headed out for my favorite Blueberry Swamp stand arriving at about 6:30.  Legal hunting was about 7:00.  I climbed up, settled in and began the wait.  The wind was light out of the west, perfect for this stand on the east side of the swamp.  I always say, "if you spend enough time in that stand you will see a deer".   Fortunately, this was true this year as well.

At about 9:30 I noticed movement through the trees, way out to the east.  Two deer, one bigger than the other moving from the north to the south.  I got my Ruger American bolt action .308 up but never saw them again through the scope.  Since there were two of them and one was bigger it probably was a doe with her fawn. They must have turned and headed away to the east since I never saw them again.

Then the wait continued in earnest.  I sat, and sat and sat some more.  About 11:00 I was getting hungry so was waiting for a train to come through so I could open up my noisy swivel bucket seat where I stowed  my thermos of chicken noodle soup and ham with cheese sandwich.  The stand is a few hundred yards from a very busy train track.  I always wait for the train to come by before opening up the bucket so the noise of the train will cover the "CRACK" of the bucket lid opening and closing.  The trains had come by about hourly today so I didn't think I'd have to wait long for lunch.  Of course there was no train until about 12:30.  But the soup and sandwich really fit the bill and I was renewed for an afternoon of more sitting and waiting.

Three more hours now passed of me just sitting and constantly scanning the woods around me, trying to keep my movement to a minimum.  Finally at about 3:30 I saw some movement to the south and west of me.  Up the hill, south of the swamp there was a deer moving through the trees! The trees were too thick to tell buck or doe yet but I felt confidant I'd get a better look at it soon.  When it's head was behind some trees I got my gun up and actually had the cross hairs on it's chest through a small clearing at one point but I still hadn't seen any antlers yet so I dare not pull the trigger.

After a short wait that felt like forever, the deer slowly moved down the hill towards the swamp.  I was watching through my scope waiting for it to step into the open where I'd be able to identify gender and maybe get a shot if it was a buck.  Well the deer stopped just before stepping into the open and my heart skipped a beat when I he put his head past the last tree and I saw antlers.  It's a buck and a nice one!

I had no shot onto his body because of the trees but I watched as he stuck his nose up into air and sniffed the wind for any human smell.  I was very glad for the west wind blowing my stink away from him and was mentally urging him on: "come on, come on, take a step forward!"  Finally after he felt it was safe he took a step forward and immediately I had the cross hairs on his chest and squeezed off a shot.  He went right down into the snow and never got up again.  After nine hours of patiently waiting, I had my deer down!

 I could see him from the stand and could tell I had no reason to wait the normal 20 minutes for him to die.  He was about 80 yards out and very much dead.  I found out later that I must have pulled my gun to the right because the shot went through his neck and killed him instantly.  I sent a text message to Don to let him know that the shot he heard was me and my hunt was over.  I then climbed down and started the walk that every deer hunter dreams of: walking up on a nice big buck that you just harvested.  I was saying "Thank you Lord, thank you Lord, thank you Lord" as I walked up to him.  I always am very grateful to God for His provision and that He let's us take and eat his creation.  This provision of food is but a shadow of His greatest provision of all of sending His Son as our Savior.  God is good, all the time!

He was a big bodied eight pointer. I field dressed him and then realized there was no way I was going to drag this deer out of the woods on my own.  Every direction from where he was laying was up hill and this was around a two hundred pound deer.  I went back to the hunting shack to get some help, hopefully help on a tractor.  A neighbor, Nate, happened to come by to see how we were doing as I walked up to the shack .  I said; "I have a big buck down at the Blueberry Swamp, and everyone else is still hunting and Charlie is out of town.  Can you help?"  "Sure, be glad to", he said.  His little brother was with him so the three of us climbed on Charlie's tractor and we drove on over.  There was no way we were going to get the tractor through the heavy trees to the swamp so we got as close as we could up on the hill and started the walk down.  When we walked up to the deer, now in the dark, Nate took one look, turned with a big grin on his face, stuck out his hand to shake mine and said, "that's a bruiser of a deer, Wayne!".  I had to admit that he was and that's how this deer got his name; "The Bruiser".  It was quite a workout for the three of us to pull him up the hill to the tractor but we did and got him home.

Weeks later when I got the antlers back to Minneapolis and boiled the hide off the skull I was able to compare the rack with the others on the wall.  I now realize that "The Bruiser" was the second biggest deer I've ever taken.  Not as big as "The Biggest Buck of My Life" of  2003 but bigger in mass than the nine point "West of the Blueberry Swamp Buck" of 2005.  A very good year of deer hunting, I think.